A goal of mobile broadband is to offer seamless wireless communication services essentially everywhere. Macro cell deployments often provide acceptable service coverage, while some areas such as important and/or very populated buildings are subject to dedicated solutions. However, in some other areas, macro coverage is insufficient, and it is not economically viable to consider dedicated deployments. Examples include underground garages, tunnels, and apartment buildings.
One appealing solution in such cases is to deploy repeaters. A repeater receives radio signals at one antenna and forwards the received signal over another, possibly after some amplification. Repeaters (amplifies and) forwards both the signals and noise, which may have a negative impact on the donor cell. All received signals at the pick-up antenna are repeated—no knowledge about the communication protocols is needed. Furthermore, the donor cell and base station may be unaware that the link is via a repeater.
However, if not properly managed, repeaters can waste significant amounts of energy and unnecessarily interfere with the communication of nearby devices, such as base station and mobile terminals. In particular, if operating when no or few mobile devices need their services, repeaters can have a negative impact on overall system operation. But, given that the mobile communication system may have no or incomplete knowledge of where repeaters are installed and no dedicated communication link with the repeaters, discovering and effectively managing repeaters can be difficult.